One of the most unusual presentations from yesterday's Learning Technologies strand at the IATEFL conference in Milan was Harry Kuchah's talk about his experience working with the Ministry of Basic Education and teachers and schools in his native Cameroon, in order to develop an ICT policy.

Most of us, when we hear the term ICT (Information and Communications Technology) think of the high tech: computers, digital cameras, the Internet, etc. But Harry pointed out that ICT can also mean low tech too, especially in a country such as Cameroon, where less that 5% of the school population have access to computers.

So what place does ICT have in the curriculum? Harry mentioned that there are basically three types of schools in Cameroon: 1) urban schools that may have some access to computers 2) semi-rural makeshift schools and 3) rural schools (which usually have no computer access). 

The average teacher-student ratio here is 1:76, and in many of these schools can be 1:150. But many improvements have been made over the last three years, and the ICT policy has been successfully introduced in the curriculum. Usually this involves schools working with local communities (there are well over a hundred different indigenous languages in the country) to get local representatives introducing traditional ICT (using music, chants, various instruments such as flutes, whistles and gongs) to Primary school kids. The instruments here are crucial in the communities and are used to convey important local information (such as news of the death of an important person). These are often used with the children as the basis of role-plays involving them working on preparations based on the information conveyed by each musical message.

Of course, this is just one example, and Harry played some typical songs to illustrate his point. He also mentioned that the XO laptop has now been introduced into a number of schools in Cameroon, and where it has been introduced, there is on average one laptop per three children. This is being promoted by MIT and subfunded with help from a leading bank too.

As for the course material, this is being written locally, and the curriculum in Cameroon stresses the importance of respect for the different local communities and cultures of Cameroon first and foremost. It's early days, but this ICT policy seems to be having a positive impact in the country and is bringing the local community and schools together in ways that look likely to be an interesting model for other similar countries to follow.

Harry's talk was very well received and must surely be one of the highlights of the conference.